Today we are planning the last sol of the mobility test,
turning and backing out of the sand while taking multiple Hazcam images, then
pausing to take Navcam and Mastcam images of the wheel tracks. But first, Mastcam will take multispectral
images of a rock named “Narabeb” and a… Read More

Today’s plan is focused on studying the results of
yesterday’s mobility test where we drove a little ways into a sand patch and
then backed out, leaving trenches where the wheels were. Yes, we’re disturbing
some of the very photogenic sand ripples that we have been seeing, but… Read More

Due to problems at the Goldstone DSN complex, the bundle of
command sequences generated for Sol 1180 could not be sent to MSL. So the rover performed minimal activities on
Sol 1180, as expected in “runout” mode. The
good news is that the rover’s batteries are charged… Read More

The MAHLI wheel imaging planned for Sol 1179 completed nominally, and the initial assessment showed no broken grousers. The rover is now poised to begin testing mobility in the dark sand in front of the vehicle, but first a table used onboard to determine when heating is needed must be… Read More

The 28 m drive on Sol 1174 ran successfully and Curiosity is now parked in front of a beautiful sand sheet and sand dune!
Today science and engineering teams cooked up a full 3-sol plan, to account for the second half of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The team started with equal parts… Read More

As many Americans are making plans for Thanksgiving, we’re making sure that Curiosity has plenty to do over the holiday weekend. On Sol 1173, Curiosity drove 45 m to the south, which put us in a great position in front of a small sandsheet and the stoss side of a large… Read More

Over the weekend, Curiosity drove 51 m closer to the Bagnold Dunes. I’m on duty as the Geology Science Theme Lead, and today we’re planning Sol 1173, which includes a short science block, a drive, post-drive imaging, and some untargeted science in the afternoon. The main… Read More

This week Curiosity has been driving towards the Bagnold Dunes and characterizing the bedrock and sand along the way. After a successful SAM methane experiment and 36.5 m drive on Sol 1168, Curiosity spent Sol 1169 recharging and assessing some of the local bedrock and dunes.
The… Read More

The Bagnold Dunes are tantalizingly close, and this week is mostly focused on driving to the dunes. On Sol 1167 Curiosity drove 39 m, and the dunes are starting to look pretty big, as seen in the above Navcam image. For more on our plans when we get to the dunes, check out this… Read More

Unfortunately, our plans for the weekend were thwarted by a
problem with the Deep Space Network that prevented the plans from being sent to
the rover. As someone on the team pointed out in response to the issue, this
just goes to show how many steps in the process have to go just right for us to
be… Read More